Still hotly contested by many biologists, the newly named clade Archaeoplumia includes only two genera, African Archaeopluma (gen. nov.) and Indian Echinornithoides (previously classified as a mattiraptor).
Still hotly contested by many biologists, the newly named clade Archaeoplumia includes only two genera, African Archaeopluma (gen. nov.) and Indian Echinornithoides (previously classified as a mattiraptor).
The manticorant has proven to be a difficult beast to classify. Its skeleton
has some derived features that closely align it with maniraptorans, but it also
several peculiarly archaic features, and not only in the skeleton; the
manicorant's spiny integument seems to be even more primitive than that of
errosaurs. DNA analysis seems to place the manicorant somewhere inside
tyrannoraptora, and yet outside maniraptora. Currently it is classified within
Archaoplumia together its equally primitive African cousin, Archaeopluma
(sp.) One of the more interesting skeletal characters of the manticorant is a
pygostyle-like fusion of the last caudal vertebrae. This structure seems to have
evolved to act as a base for the numerous large quills at the tip of
manticorant's tail. 
(fig. 1) Manticorant, Echinornithoides protervus (India)
